KEVIN SMITH is on the board of directors for the centre for Inquiry, Canada’s premier venue for humanists, skeptics and freethinkers.

Ever had a dream where you are talking to a room full of people and no one is paying attention? That’s a good example of how it feels to be an atheist on an inter-religious panel — if we’re even asked to participate. In fact the dream is more like a nightmare; we’re usually overlooked when the invites are sent out.

Like a broken record playing at full volume, I’ve heard the reasons. Why bother? Atheism is not a faith, or we don’t believe in God so what value would we add? And that comes from some of my fellow heathens. I’d hate to hear what theists say about us, if anything at all.

So I get it at both ends. The atheists tell me it’s a waste of time and the theists tell me, when I dare ask, the same darn thing.

Inter-faith discussions fail when they turn into a passive-aggressive debate on whose god is better, or my favourite: if there’s one at all. Fact is, arguing how we got here is less important than how we are going to get along now that we are here.

I think it’s imperative that this out-and-proud atheist engage with every faith, from Anglican to Zoroastrian. Thanks to my friends at this paper, I do that here. Despite the very real possibility of an occasional rise in blood pressure of those on this page, it is critical that yours truly attempts to represent the world view of millions of Canadians. And feel some sympathy for me. Maybe even say a little prayer. The odd complaint I receive is not always from the religious. It’s not God I’m worried about; the extreme atheists are a much more frightening force to be reckoned with.

BALPREET SINGH is legal counsel and acting executive director for the World Sikh Organization of Canada.

Inter-religious dialogue is encouraged in the Sikh faith, not to make converts, but to help discover our unity. The Sikh faith encourages dialogue that rises above distinctions of religion, ethnicity, gender and class. One of Guru Nanak’s first lessons was that humanity is one and that the divisions we have created are artificial. It’s not the label that matters but the content of one’s character.

Guru Nanak travelled to the major centres of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism and engaged in dialogue with people of all faiths. Although he was initially met with apprehension, he was able to transcended the bounds of religion. As a result, he had friends and admirers from every community. Each subsequent Guru continued in Guru Nanak’s tradition and counted members of other faiths as close friends. Even where the Sikh faith is not in agreement with a particular religious observance, the Gurus taught that all persons must be afforded the freedom to follow their conscience. In fact, the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was executed by India’s Mughal rulers for defending the right of Hindus to freely practise their faith.

In today’s world, religious barriers continue to be an obstacle to understanding. That in part is due to a reluctance to engage in discussions of religion for fear of offending others. Creating a safe space for people of different faiths to talk and engage on a personal level is key. I know that I, for one, am never offended if someone asks the significance of my turban or other articles of faith. Once we talk, we realize that although we may not share a religious identity, we have much more that connects us than separates us. In the end, we all share our humanity.

Rev. KEVIN FLYNN is an Anglican priest and director of the Anglican studies program at Saint Paul University.

The best summary of current Anglican thinking on inter-religious dialogue is found in a document issued in 2008 by the Anglican Communion’s Network for Interfaith Concerns. Titled “Generous Love,” the document balances the traditional Christian imperative to share what God has done in Jesus Christ with the recognition that no human religion, including Christianity, can claim to encompass the fullness of the mystery of God.

The Christian can affirm that all people are entitled to hear the story of Jesus and to receive an invitation to enter into that story themselves. This is not the same thing, however, as saying that all people necessarily must become Christians in order to find favour in God’s sight. This is a departure from older understandings that held all non-Christian religions to be “in error.” Rather, God has always been in dialogue with the human race and has never been without witnesses to that conversation in every language, culture, and religion. “Generous Love” maintains that the Holy Spirit is sovereignly free and active throughout the world, and when the fruits of the Spirit are present in others, we must celebrate that reality by engaging “joyfully” in that work.

To be in dialogue with another requires a strong sense of one’s own identity. “Generous Love” makes it clear that the Christian is one who believes that “through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth the One God has made known his triune reality as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” We are called to share in God’s mission by working to renew and restore the world and so share God’s “generous love.” But as the Spirit is free to work both within and outside the Church, so Anglicans can be confident that inter-religious dialogue can and should lead to common action for the well-being of all.

TOPIC: How does your faith regard inter-religious dialogue?

Rev. Innen Parchelo is a novice Tendai priest and founder of the Red Maple Sangha, the first lay Buddhist community in Eastern Ontario.

As a faith which has been a “guest” in dozens of nations, each with their own indigenous faiths, Buddhism has embraced inter-faith dialogue since its earliest times. Typical of most Asian faiths, it has dialogued with, borrowed from, transformed and been transformed by many. Since it has never claimed exclusive access to or possession of the Truth, it has no territory to protect.

In fact, it is characteristic of Buddhist teaching to embrace two principles. First, we are taught not to hold any views as the final ultimate Truth. The Buddha himself is quoted as advising all seekers to follow the Buddhaway if they have confidence in it. If they can find another teaching which not only promises but delivers as his does, they ought embrace that heartily. Secondly, in his major teaching, The Eight Steps to Satisfaction, he advises us to cultivate an openness to multiple perspectives. As the well-known metaphor goes, if four people are examining an elephant through four different holes in a fence, they will each be equally convinced this creature is a mass of grey wrinkles, some long snakiness, bird-like flappy wings or a flyswatter. Each perspective contributes to our fully understanding.

In our congregation, we have set interfaith dialogue as our study theme for this year. We have established a connection with a United Church congregation in Nova Scotia whereby we explore a different religious theme each month. The ministers make a comment on the theme and share it, then share their reply. The congregations get to read or hear the dialogue and share their views with each other online. So far we have considered issues of suffering and the nature of the founder to name but two.

Members of both congregations have found the process extremely valuable in adding new dimensions to their understanding. I spoke with one of our community who participates regularly in our services and maintains a similar interest in her Christian church. Through this dialogue, she explained to me, she has come to much deeper understanding of her own religious faith, and how it can overlap both faith traditions without contradiction.

How does your faith regard inter-religious dialogue?

Rev. Geoff Kerslake is a priest of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Ottawa.

The Catholic Church has vigorously promoted inter-religious dialogue for many years.

At the Second Vatican Council, the Church promulgated two important documents: the “Decree on Ecumenism” (Unitatis Redintegratio) on inter-Christian dialogue and the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate). The works of Sacred Scripture (the Bible) provide the means for advancing inter-Christian dialogue: “Sacred Scriptures provide for the work of dialogue an instrument of the highest value in the mighty hand of God for the attainment of that unity which the Saviour holds out to all.” (UR, n. 21)

The Church also recognized that what we have in common is a starting point for Christian dialogue with other religions: “In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.” (NA, n. 1)

To have genuine inter-religious dialogue, we must honestly recognize our differences as well as our common beliefs. One famous theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, once remarked that genuine inter-religious dialogue begins first by delving deeply into our own faith to truly understand it before we can enter into a fruitful dialogue with others. But before we can exchange views about our faith, we first need the basic human right to freedom of religion to be guaranteed.

In the Vatican II document entitled the “Declaration on Religious Freedom: On the Right of The Person and of Communities to Social and Civil Freedom in Matters Religious” (Dignitatis Humanae), the Catholic Church championed the basic human right of all people to freedom of religion that must ground any sincere dialogue between different faiths. Without freedom of religion, which today many regimes deny their citizens, real understanding or dialogue, is impossible.

RADHIKA SEKAR holds a PhD in religious studies and taught Hinduism courses at Carleton and University of Ottawa. An aspiring Vedantin, she is a devotee of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission.

Hindus see diversity as a natural expression of God’s immanence and like the myriad species there infinite ways of communicating with God. “Truth is One, but called differently by Sages,” declares the Veda.

Hindus are thus naturally predisposed to pluralism and Hindu philosophers have since ancient times engaged in discussion and debate in regular sabhas (assemblies), both within their own tradition and with the other Dharmic faiths; i.e. Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Not only do these religions have a shared cultural background, but the interchange of ideas between them is so all embracing that at times it is hard to tell them apart. Philosopher saint Adi Sankara (7AD), renowned as the foremost proponent of Advaita, was often charged with being a “closet” Buddhist.

Interfaith dialogue is increasingly crucial today and Hindus are readily drawn into it. The premise of the dialogue can either acknowledge differences or overlook them.

In the first instance, you are accepting the right of others to hold different beliefs — you do not have to embrace these views yourself, but merely accept that they are valid and the ‘right’ of others to hold them.

The second approach overlooks differences all together or tolerates them. Being tolerated is insulting and condescending; you tolerate those you see as inferior. Such an attitude is not conducive to an equitable environment and inter-faith dialogue can be productive only when participants come together as equals in a spirit of mutual respect.

Concluding his talk at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago (1893) Swami Vivekananda expressed his ideal in the following prayer: “May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura Mazda of Zoroastrians, the Buddha of Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heavens of Christians, give strength to you to carry out your noble ideas.”

JACK MCLEAN is a Bahá’í scholar, teacher, essayist and poet published in the fields of spirituality, Bahá’í theology and poetry.

One of the three central teachings of the Bahá’í Faith (1844-), along with the oneness of God and the unity of humanity, is the essential oneness of the world’s great religions. This teaching has been mentioned as far back as the mid-19th century in the sacred writings of the two Prophet-Founders of the Bahá’í Faith, the Báb (the Gate) (1819-1850) who was the forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh (the Glory of God) (1817-1892).

It follows that Bahá’ís would be keenly interested in engaging and promoting inter-religious dialogue, and deepening their knowledge of the commonalities of the world’s religions. The prohibitions that have existed in some other religions of forbidding association with non-believers, regarding them as unclean, and/or followers of the lie or Satan, etc. have been expressly abolished by Bahá’u’lláh. Instead, we find more enlightened and progressive teachings: “That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion. These principles and laws, these firmly-established and mighty systems, have proceeded from one Source, and are rays of one Light. That they differ one from another is to be attributed to the varying requirements of the ages in which they were promulgated” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, p. 287).

‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son, followed his father’s counsel: “The utterance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship” (Gleanings, p. 288). During his two year teaching tour of western Europe, Canada and the United States (1911-1912), ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke in churches of all denominations, synagogues and mosques. He encouraged the followers of these religions to visit one another’s houses of worship and to associate with one another in love and harmony.

Inter-religious dialogue is not just a hand-holding exercise for Bahá’ís, especially for the Bahá’í Community of Ottawa Office of Interfaith. It involves study, meetings, research and dialogue. Every year the Bahá’í community hosts World Religion Day around the world.

ABDUL RASHID is a member of the Ottawa Muslim community, the Christian-Muslim Dialogue and the Capital Region Interfaith Council.

The Holy Koran informs us that human diversity is Divinely ordained (5:51 and 30:22). Our Merciful Creator also blessed us with the unique faculty of speech (Holy Koran, 55:4). It provides us with the ability to talk, explain our points of view to each other and understand our differences and commonalities. This is what the various forms of interfaith dialogues across the world are engaged in.

The Koran encourages Muslims to initiate and participate in such dialogues. At the same time, it advises us to conduct these dialogues “with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and reason with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best who have strayed from His path and who receive guidance” (16:125).

We are fortunate to have a rich tradition of regular interfaith dialogues in our city. Jewish-Christian and Christian-Muslim dialogue groups have been meeting here regularly for several decades. The Capital Region Interfaith Council consisting of more than a dozen faith groups meets and holds interfaith functions on a regular basis. In fact, its next function “Joy of Faith” is at 3-5 p.m. on June 10, 2012, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6255 Cumorah Way, Orléans. It is open to public, where 10 faith groups will render praises of the Creator through music and poetry.

Our world has become a global village, which is the common abode of human family. The members of this family must interact and talk. Inter-faith dialogues increase mutual recognition, understanding and respect and dispel many suspicions that stem from ignorance.

My long exposure to and dialogue with people of other faiths in Canada has enriched my own faith. It has also brought about a firm conviction that, irrespective of doctrinal differences, the various religions share a vast area of common, even identity, in respect of their moral and ethical teachings about truth, justice, piety, sharing and human dignity.

Rabbi REUVEN BULKA is head of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa and host of Sunday night with Rabbi Bulka on 580 CFRA.

In the historical context, having pleasant conversation with representatives of other faiths is a welcome change from the one-sided and often nasty inter-religious “conversations” of centuries ago; indeed of less than a century ago. Inter-religious dialogue is voluntary, and usually friendly as well as respectful.

The real question to contemplate is — why talk? There are numerous answers to this. One is that it is better to talk than to fight. An anemic reason. Another is that we get to better know each other. This is a better reason. But I am not convinced that we need to know the whys and wherefores of other faiths in order to respect its practitioners.

Perhaps more to the point is that setting up conversations among different faith communities helps in general to progress on matters of common interest. Recently, during Kindness Week, representatives of various religions, including the Archbishop, the Imam, and others joined me in giving out chocolates to people coming off the planes at the Ottawa Airport. It was a fun time. We actually did very little talking about religious matters, but I suspect we did more to build camaraderie than via any dialogue.

Assuming, I think correctly, that in spite of the significant differences between the faiths, there is more that unites, or at least enough that unites, it is the points of unity that should be the basis of inter-religious conversation. What unites is the common concern for the welfare of society, and the desire to address the challenges to that welfare.

It is therefore not a surprise that there is a pan-religious endeavour to address the housing issue, among other concerns. This may not qualify as dialogue, because it is not a conversation about faith. However, it is about the implementation of faith based concerns. There is no better, more meaningful dialogue, than that.

On the more global level, the issues are more complex. But much has been achieved in the dialogue between the Jewish and Christian faith communities, as they look seriously at the more painful, tragic consequences of religious intolerance. The honest exchange on this pressing matter has yielded some very promising results. To that we say “Amen.”

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